Some months ago I began walking at night, with a plan to eventually begin running, to hopefully turn back the symptoms of my type 2 diabetes. The complete lack of light and safety for much of my travels each night made it necessary to rethink safety in the darkness while next to or traversing the roads.

Young man killed wearing reflective safety vest

In the last 2 months there have been 3 fatal accidents on the news locally, one of which I know the individual in New York was wearing a reflective safety vest. The driver did not see the person riding his bike, and his life was over in an instant.

Even with people trying to make the right decisions in being safe at night using jogging lights while walking, jogging or riding their bikes, something better needs to be on the market to turn passive, hard to see obstacles, into almost “in your face” well lit and easy to see obstacles coming their way.

My name is Andrew Jones, I created the Illuminator at www.the-illuminator.com. A hugely versatile and powerful night time illuminated running vest or night time safety light system. There are several configurations in the works that will provide users with a range of 500 to 4,000 lumens of light power with a yet to be determined battery life, although purchasers will be able to choose various battery configurations to suit their requirements.

New Era in Jogging Lights

The illuminator is very different, it is shoulder mounted, (a lighted device on each shoulder) it has a harness and small compartments both font and back to carry any required bits and pieces like phone, keys, cash etc. You can even take off the shoulder mounted lights and clamp them onto your favorite backpack. They are fully adjustable, panning upwards and downwards, with a pan to left and right adjustment, and comes with a variety of one-touch lighting configurations (even a one tap, pulsed high beam to signal drivers).

The young man recently killed (only one of many in the last months alone) was not seen in the haze of night time lights that fill the vision of motorists on the streets at night. You need to stay safe, be seen and be proactive in making sure your safety is paramount, even if you feel you may be going a little overboard, I would rather see you wearing a head mounted lighting unit than nothing at all.

We have had some initial delay in getting parts to test and configure from overseas. The Cree circuit boards and led’s took a while to arrive after our initial batch and the lack of funds in this small business startup has been frustrating to say the least at times, but progress is being made.

Improved Design in Night-time Safety

The harness and shoulder straps are being tested with illuminated wires, to help give a unique and cool night time look and feel, although we are trying to steer away from the full-on “Tron” look about the kit. When wearing a head-mounted night light, I feel a little self conscious, though the Illuminator looks and feels a little more military, I prefer it to the head mounted solutions, and it is certainly much more powerful (more than 50 times more powerful in some cases).

The main difference with our night time activity lighting system, is it just does not just glow, it is not just reflective; it is a powerful, proactive, essential piece of safety equipment for almost any night time activity. It sends a very powerful beam of light, way ahead of you, announcing your arrival at any corner, long before you arrive at any corner, unlike any glowing vest or safety vest or regular jogging light of almost any brand on the market today.

Recently when it was quite foggy, we took a regular head mounted running light and the Illuminator out to be tested for power and visibility, below are some images of the comparisons from varying distances and angles. These images depict 1 lamp only (not 2 as will come with each purchase – 1 on each shoulder) so imagine if you can, twice the power of these images, you would look like small vehicle coming someone’s way, and they would certainly take notice of you more.

Kickstarting the Night

In the next few months we will be launching the Kickstarter campaign, to raise the finances required to put an extra few more months of product development and then manufacturing, making the Illuminator available world-wide. Please follow along with us on Facebook to not miss the developments as they happen. Also please stay tuned as we bring you images of the harness and shoulder lighting modules.

Here is a video of the illuminator in action at half strength, till we complete the prototypes.